Landscape No. 2
Monday, December 22nd, 2008 by therese
Winter Light
The Impressionists loved the Paris landscape because it was often overcast and dim, allowing for sumptuous contrasts, variation in tones and expressive moodiness. The starkness of balmy Southern France could easily get tiresome. Although I love the light of the summer months, the palette of Canadian winter is something inspiring. There is warmth somehow, in the soft silvers and grays, and dots of pale almost white gold.
Torontonian side street
But I’ve also been thinking a lot about architecture. I have an unexplainable fascination with houses on Torontonian side streets. Tall, with narrow Victorian peaks, squished side by side. The have an almost human character to them, taken on by their many past and present residents. They sit squished and quiet, heavy with history and memory, peeling paint. Their windows are like tall, narrow eyes that in the evening, wink with lights from within.
Sky light
I’d like to start painting architecture, brush up on my perspectival skills (and I’ve lots to brush up on in that regard) and see what happens. Ever heard of The Poetics Of Space by Gaston Bachelard? Ever since theisis year at OCAD, I can’t get it out of my mind. I also can’t get past the forward to the 1994 edition which sparkles my imagination. The book, even before I’ve read its entirety, is I know, quite complex. I am almost afraid to read it, not wanting to unfold the mystery it holds for me. I think it’s time, though. Here’s the first paragraph to the forward:
Shells and doorknobs, closets and attics, old towers and peasant huts, all shimmer here, shimmer as points linked in the transcendental geometry of Gaston Bachelard. Ostensibly modest in compass, an inquiry focused on the house, its interior places and its outdoor context, The Poetics of Space resonates deeply, vibrating at the edges of imagination, exploring the recesses of the psyche, the hallways of the mind. In the house Bachelard discovers a metaphor of humanness.
Delicious!
